Busicom sold its
desktop calculators through NCR, with their brand name, in the United
States. They also exported the calculators to
Europe and Asia.
Busicom
chose Mostek and Intel for the development of the chipset since these
were the only two companies, who were experienced in silicon gate MOS
technology at this time.
Busicom's original design required several chips, Intel's proposal was to
reduce it to four chips. Ted Hoff suggested a general-purpose processor
that could be programmed for various applications. In the beginning of
1970 Busicom agreed and signed a contract whereby Intel would develop the
calculator chips for $60,000.
The 4004 was forwarded to Japan
in March or April 1971. During this year Busicom was able to sell about
100,000 calculators. The introduction of the 4004 to the general market
started in November 1971 after Intel had recovered the rights to use the
microprocessor design and to market it for non-calculator applications.

Intel
Memorabilia ClockClock with 4004 chip die on front

closed
clock

opened
clock

opened
clock

chip
die
in front
of dial

back
side
of clock

opened
back side
of clock

advertise
booklet

Clock in form of a small book
(polished brass); chip die of 4004 fixed in front of dial, advertise
booklet

Distributed in
November 1996 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the microprocessor
4004.
After years of economic and technical war between US and
Japanese microprocessor manufacturers now a Japanese company is involved
into the production of this Intel memorabilia clock (see backside).